Buzz
Around
with Z
Emergent
Literacy Design
Rationale: This lesson will help children recognize the
phoneme /z/ that is represented by Z.
By learning a physical representation
(motioning with you pointer finger and thumb together like a buzzing
bee
flying) and associating it with the symbol Z,
children will be able to identify /z/ in spoken words along with
practicing
finding /z/ in words.
Materials: Primary handwriting paper and a pencil with
an eraser; Zack the Lazy Zebra by Wendy Lewison; assessment worksheet
for
students to identify the studied graphemes picture is present; small
dry erase
board and dry erase marker and eraser.
Procedures:
1.We will warm up by reviewing phonemes and graphemes they already
know.
"Who all remembers what sound the letter d makes? Remember d
says /d/. Can someone give me some words that start with /d/? Great
job! What
sound does the letter h make? Excellent!
Can someone give me some words that begin with the letter k?
Continue discussing both the grapheme and the phoneme and ask students
to think
of words that use that phoneme.
2. Use the dry erase board to draw a capital Z. “Who knows what letter this is?”
“This is the letter Z.” Explain that the letter z says
/z/. “/z/
sounds like zebra or could sound like someone who's name is Zane. To
make this
sound, put your teeth together. Then touch the tip of your tongue above
your
top teeth. Then make a buzzing noise that kind of tickles and this
should make
the sound /z/.” Make the hand motion of your pointer finger and thumb
together
and move it around like a buzzing bee while making the /z/ sound. Show
the
children how to make their bee buzz by showing them how you do yours.
“All
right, now everyone practice making their bee buzz while making the /z/
sound.
Excellent buzzing bees!”
3.Now
model to the students how to listen for /z/ in words and choose the
correct
word. “Do I hear /z/ in zig or dog?
While buzzing my bee and make the sound
/z/... I hear /z/ in zig. Do I
hear /z/ in zoo or cow? /z/(buzzing bee)... zoo.
Now you
try. Do you hear /z/ in zebra or bear? Do you hear /z/
in Zack
or Sara?”
4.Explain
to the children what a tongue twister is and write one on the dry erase
board
and say it so they can hear it. Ziggy
Zipped and Zagged around Zebras.
"Now that you heard me say it get your buzzing bee ready and
lets
try and say the tongue twister and buzz everytime we hear our buzzing
bee.
ZZZZiggy ZZZZipped and ZZZZZagged around ZZZZebras. Good job."
5. Now have students get out their paper and
pencils. Ask the children what letter we
use to spell /z/ to make sure they remember. Model how to make a
capital Z on
the dry erase board. Start at the
mountain top, cross through the middle to the other side of the
mountain and
down in the valley. “Now we are going to
learn how to write the letter Z. What does the Z say
again? Right! /z/. I can tell everyone has
been
paying attention! To make a capital Z, you cross the
top of the
mountain, cross down throught the middle to the other side of the
mountain to
the valley and cross the valley.” Continue saying this while the
students make
a z on their papers as you write another one on the board. Have
them
write four more on their paper. Make
sure each child is catching on and doing it correctly and help those
who are
not by modeling with them while holding their hand and pencil and
directing
while reciting the mountain saying. Now demostrate how to write a lower
case z. You do the same pattern but you start
in the middle of the mountain and cross to the other side and across
the
valley. Then let them do four more. Once
they are through have every one buzz their bee and make sure to
remember when
they see a Z they know what sound it
makes.
6. At last we will read Zack the Lazy Zebra. "Now we are going to read Zack the
Lazy Zebra and I want you to have your buzzing bee fingers ready so
when
you hear the buzzzzzing bee you can make your bee buzz.
7. Pass out a worksheet to each child for
assessment. Let the children find and
circle the picture if they hear /z/.
References:
Lewison,
Wendy. Zack the Lazy Zebra.
Scholastic Inc. 2001.
Yopp,
H.K., & Yopp, R.H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the
classroom.
The Reading Teacher, 54, 130–143.